IT'S ALWAYS REMARKABLE what fresh eyes can see. 'We came out of this noodle parlour and then really started looking at the building,' says Ulrike Myrzik, gesturing at a photograph of a long, low, ugly concrete block with torn posters plastered outside and a dirt road as its forecourt. It was taken in Yulin, in the Shaanxi region. 'We realised it looked like some prize-winning building in Switzerland. Whenever we show this picture to architects in Europe, they are wowed,' she says, laughing.
It's been seven years since Myrzik and partner Manfred Jarisch, award-winning photographers from Germany, first balanced their massive large-format wooden cameras on hired bicycles and started a wobbly voyage of discovery around China. What they have recorded since 1994 is not photojournalism. The pair, both 35, are architectural photographers by training. And that's been their approach to China.
What saves their exhibition, entitled Big, from sliding into cliche is the vantage point that captures the mainland's multiple moods. Myrzik and Jarisch have come up with, quite literally, the bigger picture, wide shots that express the idea of an enormous, infinitely varied landscape.
'We are looking to find order out of the chaos, through the infrastructure, the architecture,' says Myrzik.
People rarely are aware of their immediate environments, Jarisch adds. 'Which is why we try to keep a distance, to show the people how they're living. That's especially possible with large format cameras.'
Setting up their bulky equipment, they would often take half a day arranging a shot, waiting for the right light, discussing their approach. And, as they worked, they were never without an inquisitive audience.